Plans and Schemes, Daydreams

How many friggin’ twitter accounts and subdomains and jobs does a person have to have?

Well, I guess the number is “more than I expected” in all cases. So this post is intended more as a way to explain to myself just what the hell I think I’m doing. The @mpomy twitter account has a lot of music on the mind, but also sports, entertainment, politics, social justice. Then there’s the @mdp_esq twitter account. That’s now got crypto, upcoming lawyer AI project, upcoming data analytics project and also general law stuff, some of which may shade into social justice. These aren’t rules, by the way, it’s just what I’m observing. These two twitter accounts have existed in this fashion for a good little while already.

Now there is an ionomy/crypto podcast, which is hosted on an mpomy subdomain and is described (by me!) as an “mpomy production.” But hang on! Isn’t the subject of that podcast closer to the @mdp_esq persona? Yes, but I don’t care. I’ve already got all this organized in my brain and I don’t want to get rid of the _esq twitter account. Even though it has almost no followers. Maybe I like it that way.

As I talk this out, I realize I need to clarify on both twitter accounts that I, we, are the same person. Gemini stuff. #smdh

There will be more podcasts, which, I guess, will mean more subdomains. Or at least one other. I’m getting outstanding feedback, which is the benefit of knowing and working with a lot of really cool people. Over the past week, I’ve had a single mammoth content plan start to take shape, and there are even early notes, preliminary discussions and some scripting. This could be a work of bizarre fiction, where i need no one elses help, all the way up to a documentary film, which is what I really want to do. The music-related subject will be discussed later, but I feel strongly that whatever happens with the project, there will be a podcast discussion to accompany (or embody) the work. Is that opaque enough?

The idea of merging a pre-existing wiriting idea with a podcast production, especially when music will play such an essential role in the content, makes sense to me. I am not abandoning a project, but co-opting it’s momentum for a better project.

Still on podcasts, I would like to have another project just to discuss music and bring on the amazing individuals who have contributed to my musical knowledge. discuss songs, albums, concerts, etc.

All of these musings are leading me to a potentially significanrt expenditure on pro-level tools/subscription software. It would be a real shame if my eyes were actually a lot bigger than my head in this regard, but the more I contemplated the project (even before consdiering Adobe CC), the more I kept coming back to it as a viable solution. Overkill, perhpas, but that’s how you win. When I asked about podcasting, CC was the suggested solution. I looked up animation, and I immediately got to CC. I dream about making a fancy documentary – and again I see that CC can do the job. So, today i’m going to start the free trial and then decide what I want to do.

And this long running, often dormant, blog will continue in some capcity, particularly for the exercise of celebrating life with music. I feel like this is an exciting moment in the journey, and I can’t wait to see what happens. I’ll probably write about it here.

Celebrate Life With Music – Podcast No. 1

The idea is to take no more than 1/2 hour of your time and present you with four or five songs that have been on my mind, for whatever reason.  With the blog entry, I will tell you what I was thinking in presenting these songs in this order.  As always, you are free to comment and discuss.  In addition, I ask that you contact me privately if you would like information on how to obtain any of these selections or the albums from which they are drawn.

You can download the podcast here, or stream it using the audio player below.

  1. Tangerine Dream – Bondy Parade (5:20) from the Tangerine Tree bootleg series (#37).  This recording is from a live performance in Sydney in 1982.  Despite Tangerine Dream’s reputation as being “new age” or “head music” (what is that?), I find this excerpt to be a funky little groove.  The guitar solo is a bit tentative, but this gives an excellent flavor of how the band had shifted from improvisational to a more song-oriented approach.
  2. SBB – Walkin’ Round The Autumn Town (4:00) from Live in Koln 1979.  This is a great instrumental intro that shows how SBB, usually considered more of a jazz fusion act, really used groove-style improvisation that seems to go well with the Tangerine Dream track.  Skzerk’s keyboard solo reminds me why I have such deep and abiding love for analog synthesizers.
  3. Black Bonzo – Sudden Changer (4:30) from Operation Manual: The Guillotine Model Drama 2009.  This band came into my life from a recommendation on the internet.  I have only corresponded with this person online, but there was such strong musical affinity to begin with that I dove into Black Bonzo and was hooked right away.  As a contrast from the previous twi tracks, this includes a vocal performance and, while decidedly prog, this has very strong rock elements.  Black Bonzo does so many things so well.
  4. Spock’s Beard – The Gypsy (7:30) from Day for Night 1999.  This make a nice match for Sudden Changer, despite being ten years older.  Spock’s Beard, even today, reminds us that we shouldn’t leave the “rock” out of prog rock.  There are so many beloved Spock’s Beard songs, this is an often overlooked gem from the height of the Neal Morse era.

Thank you for listening.

CLWM – Celebrate Life With Music